Oklahoma City University
vs. Oklahoma Baptist

Thursday, Feb 23
6 p.m. Abe Lemons Arena

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University?s women finish out their home schedule against Sooner Athletic Conference rival Oklahoma Baptist. A win would clinch the regular-season conference title.
Thursday is also Spaghetti Warehouse and Westlake Hardware OCU Senior Night. The Spaghetti Warehouse will have a catering table set up at the arena.
There will be a drawing for a $7,000 Meinders spirit scholarship for an OCU student.

ABOUT THE STARS: OCU is 25-2, 16-0 in the SAC after a 76-49 win over Southern Nazarene in Bethany, Okla. Mariam Sy scored 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. The 6-foot-4 senior from Mali, West Africa shot 11-of-17 from the field and also came up with four steals. Alexandra Kotta, a 5-11 junior from Germantown, Md., added 13 points and eight rebounds.
Sy enters the game averaging 21.9 points and 17th with 9.1 rebounds a game. She is third in NAIA Division I in scoring and 17th in rebounding. Her field-goal percentage (55.1) is good for 15th. Kotta adds 9.6 points and 3.4 rebounds a game.
As a team, OCU leads the nation in defensive 3-point percentage at 25.5. OCU's 3-point percentage (38.0) and field-goal percentage (47.4) rank third nationally. OCU is 29-16 all-time against OBU, having won the last 16 games in the series. The Stars won 68-67 earlier this season in Shawnee, Okla.
OCU is ranked third in the NAIA and leads the SAC. In the preseason coaches conference poll, the Stars were picked to finish second.

ABOUT THE LADY BISON: John Brown (Ark.) ended a three-game OBU winning streak Monday night with a two-point buzzer-beater shot to down the Lady Bison 72-70. Tabetha Eaton lead the way for OBU with 20 points and six rebounds, including a lay-up with 7.1 seconds left to tie the game 70-70. The loss dropped OBU to 21-7, 9-7. Dilenny Castillo, a 5-10 junior, leads OBU with 13.6 points and 7.4 rebounds a game. Rachel Heins and Eaton each score 13.4 points a game.
Lena Brenning ranks third in NAIA Division I in blocks per game with 3.18. OBU ranks fourth nationally in team blocks (4.79), and seventh in defensive field-goal percentage (36.6). The Lady Bison are ranked 22nd in the country and were picked to finish fifth in the SAC in the preseason coaches conference poll.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Rob Edmisson has 335 victories in 16 seasons as a head coach. Edmisson, a graduate of Bethany (Kan.), came to OCU after a stint as an assistant at Oklahoma State. He won 200 games at Hutchinson (Kan.) and 110 as a high-school coach in Kansas.
John McCullough came to Oklahoma Baptist from New Mexico Highlands University before the 2000-01 season. He is a University of Oklahoma graduate who was an all-American in 1979. He went on to spend two seasons in the NBA before switching to coaching in 1985.

QUOTABLE: ?The good thing is we're playing at home and we've earned a share of the title no matter what happens. We're taking the approach like we always do. We'll take the game in front of us and do what we do well and play to our strengths and stay away from our weaknesses. If we do that, the game will take care of itself.? ? Edmisson on the approach to Thursday's game

"It'll be very tough. Their kids will come in with a high level of focus and a high level of aspirations because they played us to the wire, one of the few teams that has done that in conference, probably believing they can do that again. We've talked to our kids about playing hard for 40 minutes, and if it comes down to the last possession, it comes down to the last possession. Hopefully we'll put the game in a position where it doesn't this time, but if it does, we'll do the best we can do." ? Edmisson on the game in light of the last meeting

GIVE THE HOTLINE A CALL: Follow the Stars using the OCU Athletic Hotline at (405) 208-5400 and the Sooner Athletic Conference Hotline at (405) 878-2110. Get the score and highlights after the game on these hotlines.

ON THE AIR: The Stars can be heard on the web on okcu.edu/athletics. Joel Roberts is the play-by-play man. Pregame starts approximately 5:55 p.m.
The OBU broadcast can be heard on KGFF-AM 1450.